Well known and widespread in the fitness sector are several systems for monitoring the physical activity of a user during a workout, or more generally, during an entire day.
These monitoring systems provide the user with quantitative information regarding the amount of physical activity he or she has performed. The systems are not therefore particularly useful or effective for assessing the level of achievement of preset physical activity targets based on training and/or body weight loss programs.
These systems usually comprise a portable device which can be placed in a pocket or attached to a garment and which is designed to capture a signal proportional to the physical activity performed in any place and/or at any time of day.
European patent application EP 2 050 394 in the name of the same Applicant as this invention describes a system for analyzing and monitoring physical activity done by a user and which comprises a portable device equipped with: a one-dimensional accelerometer; an electric battery; a memory configured to save samples of the signal detected by the accelerometer; a display unit for displaying a parameter representing the physical activity done; an RFID data communication module with a USB connector; and a processor for deriving from the data present in the memory the parameter representing the physical activity.
The display unit of the portable device is set up to display a dimensionless (i.e. adimensional) parameter (a variable length bar, a pure number, etc.) which provides a quantitative indication of the amount of physical activity actually performed by the user.
The dimensionless parameter is calculated by the processor using a predetermined algorithm and represents the daily physical activity done by the user.
The portable device can be connected through an RFID module to a processor of a gym machine; before starting an exercise, the user connects the device to the processor of the machine to transfer a specific training program from the portable device to the processor and when the exercise has been completed, the portable device is again connected to transfer data from the gym machine processor to the memory of the portable device.
The portable device can also be connected, using the USB connector, to a PC which may in turn be connected to a remote server. The user, when not monitoring his or her own physical activity, may therefore upload the data from the memory of the portable device to the PC and from the latter to a remote server in order to display statistics and/or comparisons useful for assessing the history of his or her own physical activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,373,820 describes another example of a physical activity monitoring system comprising a portable device equipped with a multi-axial accelerometer and a memory for saving the data measured by the accelerometer.
The portable device can be connected through a wireless communication module or through an interface cable to a processing device (a PC, a mobile telephone) in communication with a remote server. According to this aspect, the user transfers the data measured by the accelerometer to the processing device and from there to the remote server.
The data on the server are accessible to personnel specialized in the field of physical education and are analyzed to provide the user with a feedback message regarding the physical activity done when the user connects up to the remote server.
This system cannot, however, sufficiently motivate the user because the specialist personnel analyses the data substantially at predetermined intervals.
Also, the portable device is rather complicated since the feedback messages require the user to have a unit that is capable of displaying them or, alternatively, a voice synthesis circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,883,445 describes an apparatus for providing a user with a personal exercise program. In this apparatus, a processor in a server generates a training program and transmits it to a mobile telephone in such a way that the information displayed on the mobile telephone can constitute a guide for performing a fitness exercise. According to this document, a physical activity monitoring device worn by the user derives a physiological parameter of the user to enable the processor to generate a personal training program for the user taking into account the user's actual physical capabilities.
The apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,883,445 is not a monitoring apparatus, however. In effect, it does not monitor the user's physical activity as a whole (irrespective of whether or not the user performs a predetermined fitness exercise) and does not give the user an overall indication of the physical activity accumulated over time in order to inform and motivate him or her on the basis of targets the user himself or herself has set according to his or her own physical fitness level.
Patent document US 2004/0249315 describes another portable monitoring device comprising a one-dimensional accelerometer, a memory for storing the data measured by the accelerometer, a microprocessor designed to process the accelerometer signal in order to derive a dimensionless parameter representing the movement of the user, and a unit for displaying the value of the parameter.
When the user is not monitoring his or her own physical activity, the portable device can be connected to a PC to transfer to a remote server the data relating to the predetermined dimensionless parameter previously derived.
The user can access the server through a web portal in order to display his or her own personal history, even compared to that of other users, and to calculate new physical activity target values resident in the server.
Patent document GB 2454705 describes a system for monitoring physical activity and comprising a portable device equipped with accelerometers.
The portable device is configured to derive from the signals measured by the accelerometers a parameter relating to the intensity of the exercise the user is performing.
This device, too, is connectable to a PC or other portable processing device and is set up to transfer data from its internal memory to a remote server when the user is not monitoring his or her own physical activity and has connected the portable device to the PC.
The user can access the remote server to display the data, or the progress of the measured parameters over time, as well as suggestions and motivational recommendations for the next training session.
Patent document WO2009/152608 describes a system for monitoring caloric consumption.
This monitoring system, too, comprises a portable device equipped with an accelerometer and a bar display unit for displaying a parameter correlated with caloric consumption.
The portable device is also connectable to fitness machines through a wireless communication interface in order to receive data from the fitness machines.
The device comprises a loudspeaker and a display for providing the user with motivational prompts or information in the event the parameter correlated with caloric consumption is less than a preset target value resident in the memory of the portable device. These motivational prompts are not, however, very effective or really personalized since they are based on a simple threshold type comparison criterion. Moreover, the display unit is relatively sophisticated and, hence, the portable device relatively expensive.
Most users require personalized guidance and motivational prompts to increase the amount of physical activity they do and thus to improve their health and fitness conditions.
A need which has long been felt by users of monitoring systems and which has not been met by the portable devices and monitoring systems described above is that of being able, while actually performing a physical activity, to rely on guidance and particularly effective motivational prompts capable of encouraging them to boost their physical activity.
In light of this, the monitoring systems described above are not able to provide particularly effective prompts for users.